The Scarlet Empress takes place on the planet Hyspero, where Iris claims to have bought the Excelis Relic.[3]

This is the first Big Finish story to include Iris. She returns in the Bernice Summerfield story The Plague Herds of Excelis, which brings closure to elements of this story.[1] She also meets the Sixth Doctor in The Wormery and even gets her own audio series, Iris Wildthyme.

Joe Ford from Doc Oho Reviews wrote that, "If you are not a fan of Paul Magrs and his work you have to at least admire his excellent grasp of whichever Doctor he is exploring," noting that "With Excelis Dawns Magrs takes a powerful look at what makes the fifth Doctor tick, he addresses some of the complaints fans make about his character and gets us to understand why that should be the case. Whilst I don't think this is the best fifth Doctor story, for his characterisation it is definitely one of his stronger tales."[4]

E.G. Wolverson from Doctor Who Reviews praised the story, writing that "Paul Magrs' “Excelis Dawns” is every bit as good as most of the regular monthly releases, and is actually quite a bit better than the vast majority of the fifth Doctor's audio outings to date." Wolverson also made special mention to the music, writing that "David Darlington's music has a very different feel compared to most of the stuff that Big Finish have used in earlier stories, and particularly when combined with Anthony Stewart Head's excellent narration it really gives “Excelis Dawns” its own distinct sound and identity."[5]

^ abWolverson, E.G. (February 2002). "Doctor Who – Excelis Dawns". Doctor Who Reviews. From Iris Wildthyme's point of view, these events appear to take place after the novel The Scarlet Empress (where this story suggests that she acquired the Relic), and presumably The Blue Angel and Mad Dogs and Englishmen too.